A space to lay down the words behind the images. From Asia to Africa to the Americas, the portraits are made, stories are recorded and lives are represented through photography.

Sunday, June 18, 2017

Eduardo + Rolleiflex, Santa Maria del Mar, Cuba, 2016

To be a photographer on the island is difficult enough, but to be one working exclusively with film is something entirely different. This incredible man, a dear friend and brother, works in a hotel to supplement his love of photography. He works in all three formats, from 35mm to the field camera, and also develops his film in his own darkroom.

As he walks in the streets of the city, most Cubans believe that he is a tourist, until he responds to them in their native tongue. He is one of the few on the island who wants nothing to do with leaving, and embraces his life fully. He is an artist without comparison, and moves to his own rhythm. He speaks to the guests in the hotel in well over four languages and is the man photographers visit when arriving to Cuba.

I am honored to call him my brother, and to know that he always comes along to collaborate when we offer a session with our families. Here he is with his favorite street camera, with that familiar zest for life.Website

About Me

Halim Antonio Ina, Jr. is born in Managua, Nicaragua on June 17th, 1968 to parents of Lebanese descent. At the age of 5 and as a result of an earthquake, his family leaves for their ancestral home and lives in Zahle, Lebanon for the next five years. At the age of 10 his family heads for the United States due to the hostilities associated with the Lebanese Civil War beginning in 1975.

From his birth through his formal university education, he adheres to the principles laid down by his upbringing, following through with his training as a dentist and establishing a dental clinic. It is when he is instructed to purchase a camera for the documentation of his professional work that his passion for the image is discovered. This, coupled with his travels to his childhood home, allows him to have access to people from his imagination. Thus the photographer is born within the professional.

He proceeds to travel around the world, documenting the people in his path as an anthropologist takes notes. It is his time in India that transforms his photography. While working with a foundation in Old Delhi, he is shown to an alley. It is in this small space that he realizes the potential for his work, it is here that he is shown its meaning.

From this point forward, he uses his photography as a tool for raising awareness. His images are displayed and printed in order to show the public the good works of the various foundations associated with his photography, in order to gain funding for the projects from which the very subjects in his portraits benefit.

He returns to each country over the years, provides subjects with their own prints from the previous visit and proceeds to make their portraits once again. The single portrait is transformed into a study over time. It is this approach that fuels his desire to continue.